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just replaced the coolant and now my bike is blowing out white smoke pretty constantly now and bike is all the sudden having trouble turning over. What gives?

I used an anti-silicate coolant for aluminum engine which should be correct...

jtfizz wrote:just replaced the coolant and now my bike is blowing out white smoke pretty constantly now and bike is all the sudden having trouble turning over. What gives?

I used an anti-silicate coolant for aluminum engine which should be correct...

JTF
I do not think it is the coolants fault (except this one burns with white smoke which is good) it sounds like you have a blown head gasket and the previous stuff did not show up.(may have been pure water )

YG, thanks for the input.

jtfizz wrote:YG, thanks for the input.

J,
keep us informed as to how you get on, remember we are here to help if we can .

its possible that the old coolant had some thing in it to seal the leak, what did the old stuff look like?

Thanks everyone for the input. As an update, this is what's going on in timeline format:

1. Bike was previously running fine;
2. Added new coolant. Coolant was for aluminum engine and anti-silicate;
3. Afterwards, bike started showing signs of lots of white smoke from tailpipe.
4. Bike would then not start up
5. Removed new coolant from bike.
6. Bike slowly started coming back to life but bike would stall in neutral unless i was gently applying throttle;
7. Bike started making a strange noise in the engine, sounded like a thumping and gurgling type of noise
8. Keep working the throttle a bit to keep the bike running and slowly the white smoke started getting lighter;
9. Bike now finally starts again and i was able to ride it yesterday with no problems. A little bit of white smoke is still present but almost completely gone now.

I really have no idea what happened and i'm confused how the coolant could wreck so much havoc on my bike. Is the coolant situation hinting to a larger problem somewhere in my bike?

I think YG had it right the first time - blown head gasket and nothing but water in the rad.

hmm..if it is indeed a blown head gasket, how come it wasn't noticeable prior to the coolant change?

i just don't see how the coolant can bring my bike to its knees like it did....

jtfizz wrote:hmm..if it is indeed a blown head gasket, how come it wasn't noticeable prior to the coolant change?

i just don't see how the coolant can bring my bike to its knees like it did....

J,
if you have a minor coolant leak with water the water will actually "burn" it is hydrogen and oxygen after all. How ever if you use some kind of chemical (anti-oxidants) to the water it also burns but with white smoke it seems.

I could be wildly wrong but I think you have made my case for me. Where you live do you actually need any anti-freeze mixture in the coolant ? If so the try a 50/50 mix as per the manufacturers spec & see if you get any smoke then if you do then i would say my hypothesis of a head gasket leak (may be very minor) is correct.

YG,

Funny thing is i live in So Cal so its pretty warm all the time so i don't think i even need coolant so i'll probably not even add any coolant to the bike from this point on.

But bottom line, how bad is it for me to continue riding the bike with a blown gasket or gasket leak? It seems to ride fine which is the frustrating part.

maybe you had a freak case of bad fuel at a bad time? i used to much seafoam one time while my bike was overheating and thought the worst, like i had a blown headgasket, all i needed was a new radiator cap and more fuel in my tank

jtfizz wrote:YG,

Funny thing is i live in So Cal so its pretty warm all the time so i don't think i even need coolant so i'll probably not even add any coolant to the bike from this point on.

But bottom line, how bad is it for me to continue riding the bike with a blown gasket or gasket leak? It seems to ride fine which is the frustrating part.

In So Cal you need some form of coolant just to stop the bike overheating, Tap water will clog the rad with lime scale so some kind of de-ionised / distilled water would be ok guys near you I know use "water wetter" additive but read up in it first as I have NEVER used it personally and use Engine ICE both here in the UK & the west indies.

YG,

have you ever heard of this? www.sealagasket.com

apsolus wrote:maybe you had a freak case of bad fuel at a bad time? i used to much seafoam one time while my bike was overheating and thought the worst, like i had a blown headgasket, all i needed was a new radiator cap and more fuel in my tank

shoot haha...didn't even think about this but yea, at the same time i added new coolant, i did also add a can of seafoam to my fuel as well... could this be the issue?

i wanna slap you! thats what seafoam does it burns white.